May 15, 2013

Written by

Free Press Staff Writer

Fletcher Allen Health Care made it official Wednesday: It wants to add a multi-floor building to its Burlington complex that could house up to an additional 128 in-patient rooms.

The state’s largest hospital took the first step toward that goal this week by filing an application with the state Green Mountain Care Board seeking permission to spend up to $3.7 million on planning and design work for the project.

“The current in-patient buildings have major structural limitations,” the hospital said in a statement. “Floor-to-floor dimensions do not allow for installation of modern ... systems required to support contemporary inpatient surgical beds, making further upgrades to meet current standards impossible.”

The cost, size and scope of the new building, which will be located next to Fletcher Allen’s emergency department, are not yet known, the statement said.

The hospital currently has about 440 in-patient beds. David Keelty, Fletcher Allen’s director of facility planning and development, said Wednesday that part of the planning for the new building will include analyzing what to do with the existing, out-of-date inpatient rooms.

“This project will not solve all the bed replacement needs we have,” Keelty said. “It will satisfy the most immediate needs.”

The new building, if it is eventually approved, would mark the first major construction project for Fletcher Allen since it spent nearly $400 million for a new ambulatory care center that opened in 2005.

That project provoked controversy after evidence surfaced that top hospital officials covered up the true cost of the work, leading to criminal charges for four hospital executives and a two-year prison term for William Boettcher, then Fletcher Allen’s president.

Fletcher Allen also announced Wednesday it was simultaneously filing a second certificate of need application with the Green Mountain Care Board to update the hospital’s Mother and Baby Unit.

The new unit would move from Shepardson 5 to Baird 7, making it closer to the hospital’s birthing center. The existing General Clinical Research Center now on Baird 7 will be moved to another location inside the hospital complex, the statement said.

The cost of the move and renovation was put at $15.8 million, the statement said. The project, if approved, is estimated to take 18 months to complete.

The move and renovation, if approved, would add 2,500 square feet to the Mother and Baby Unit’s layout and result in the elimination of nearly all of its double-occupancy rooms.